The Girl Next Door
by LittleGee
Summary: At first, it had seemed like a good idea, but Korbyn Radner had never been a 'sorority' kind of girl. Her first three years of college had been hell. So as soon as her brother and his wife moved near to the college the summer before senior year, Korbie was out of there and living with Mac. Of course, she never expected Braxton University's resident party central to move next door.
1. Best Friends For Never

**A/N- Hello there, one and all. I know that **_**Neighbors **_**(or, where I'm from, **_**Bad Neighbours**_**) has an absolutely teeny-tiny category, but this fic is an idea that I've had bubbling around my head for a while, so I'm saying 'fuck it' and posting it up! I'm trying a new angle here: little to no romance. Will there be hints? You'll just have to wait and see. By the way, I'm English, not American. If I fuck up any words, or put in something typically English, just let me know!**

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><p><strong>Chapter One- Best Friends For Never<strong>

"Britney Applegate?"

"Here."

"Carson Ashwell?"

"Yeah."

"Lena Bailey?"

"Yup."

"Pete Carter?"

"Yeah."

"Dana Fargate?"

"Here, sir."

"Andrew Jameson?"

"I'm here."

"Michael King?"

"Yo."

"Tommy Palmer?"

"Present."

"NERD!"

"Michael, for God's sake, boy, grow up! You're twenty-one! Korbyn Radner? ...Korbyn? ...Korbie!"

I started, looking blearily up from engraving a star on my desk with my compass. "Hm? What? Oh! Er, sorry, Professor Bright. Here."

"Thank you so much for returning to us, Korbie," Professor Bright said dryly, rolling his eyes. "You won't be building too many stable houses in the future if you can't even pay attention to Attendance."

"Sorry sir," I apologized again, stifling a yawn. "My brother's baby girl is teething; she kept me up most of the night with her crying."

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><p>I had to give it to her: Stella had a serious set of lungs. I'd gone to bed just after 10. Stella had woken up at 12 and started screaming, waking up Mac and Kelly, and subsequently me. It was now coming up for half 2, and she really was showing no signs of letting up.<p>

I was bundled up under my duvet, hugging my plushie Spider-Man with my Beats clamped over my ears in an attempt to muffle the noise. But apparently, those headphones weren't as soundproof as I thought because I could still. Hear. Fucking. Crying.

"Oh my God!" I grumbled exasperatedly, pushing away the duvet and pulling off the headphones, throwing them down on the carpet in irritation. "I am never having kids." I grabbed my robe and shrugged it on over my pajamas. Not bothering to do it up, I stumbled out of my room and across the hallway into Stella's.

Mac and Kelly were already in there - they had been since Stella had first started crying. Kelly looked completely harassed. She had a still-screaming Stella in her arms, jiggling her daughter up and down in an attempt to calm her. It really was not working.

Mac, meanwhile, was just being a total man: sitting in the chair by the window, looking panicked at Stella, then running his hands through his hair, looking at Kelly, then looking freaked out. Specifically in that order.

"Man, what the fuck did you give that kid before you put her to bed?" I yawned, stretching my arms above my head and trying not to flash my brother the tattoo of a dream-catcher on my hip that he'd disapproved of for the last three years. Mac was pretty chill with nearly everything - I mean, the man smoked weed in the house, for fuck sake - but he hated my tattoos. I think it was because it reminded him that I was now twenty-one, an adult, and not just his baby sister anymore. He especially hated the skull I had on my left shoulder.

"Milk!" he retorted, folding his arms. "We gave her fucking breast milk!"

"I think she's ill!" Kelly cried in her Australian accent. "She never...she never cries like this! What if it's meningitis, or septicemia...or chicken pox!"

"Okay, first, there is a _serious _difference between meningitis and septicemia and the chicken pox," I reminded her. "And second, girl, wouldn't she have a rash?"

"Well what the fuck else could be wrong with her?!" she demanded; clearly the lack of sleep was making Kelly tetchy.

"Dude, I have had just as little sleep as you, do not start getting snippy with me," I warned her. "She hasn't got fucking meningitis, calm your shit. Look, give her to me. I'll see if I can work some magic."

"No, Korbyn, I really don't-" Kelly began, but Mac cut across her.

"Come on, babe, just let her try. Korbie babysat for fucking years before college."

"And you know how much Stel loves me," I said, pouting. "How many times have I calmed her down in the last six months? Exactly. Hand her over." I held out my arms and wiggled my fingers at her, and Kelly relented, passing the now-sobbing-rather-than-screaming Stella to me.

"Hey, baby girl," I cooed at her red, tear-streaked face as she cried at me. "Come on, Stella, don't cry for Auntie Korbie." Cue Stella crying even harder. "Fuck. Okay, um...oh! I think I know what the problem is!" At that point, Stella had attempted to bite my bare shoulder, and a little light bulb went off in my head.

I sat down in the chair by the window after evicting Mack from it, being careful not to startle Stella even more. I gently placed a finger on one of her lips and softly lifted it up. There, in the middle of her top gum, the little white cap of a tooth was poking through. "I knew it. She's teething, you idiots."

The looks of relief that fell over Mac and Kelly's faces were priceless; they both looked like they were about to pass out from sheer release. Kelly let out a breathy laugh and placed her hand over her heart, while Mac just stuck his middle finger up at me.

"Fucking hell, Korbie, like you couldn't have just said that to start with!" he said.

"Er, Mac, I'm not trying to be funny but to start with I didn't know that," I pointed out. "Kel, have you got any of that soothing gel you can put in your mouth?"

"There's some in the bathroom cabinet," she replied, having passed relief and now sounding completely drained.

"Right," I said, standing up, keeping Stella in my arms. "You two go to bed, I'll wrap up here."

"Korbie, you don't have to do that," Kelly insisted.

"No, seriously, it's fine," I replied, already heading out of the room with Stella. "You guys were actually like, _up_-up way earlier than me. Get some sleep, it's _fine_. Please."

"Thanks Korb, you rock," Mac said appreciatively, punching me on the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, brushing him off. "Just go, for fuck sake, before I change my mind."

So as my brother and sister-in-law snuggled back into bed and quickly fell straight back to sleep, the bastards, I was sitting back in Stella's room with my niece in my arms, rubbing soothing gel into her mouth and holding her until 3am, which is when she finally fell asleep.

I placed her back in her crib, pressed a kiss to her forehead and said, "Night, baby girl. I'll always be here for you," before heading back into my own room, crawling under the covers and shutting myself down until my alarm went off at 5.45.

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><p>"Well next time, may I suggest a pair of earplugs?" Professor Bright now offered, causing me to scowl at him.<p>

"Now why didn't I think of that?" I said sarcastically. "Oh wait, I did. It didn't work."

"Attitude, Korbyn, we've had this conversation before," Bright said sharply. I didn't say anything, so he continued with Attendance. "Amira-Jane Riley?"

AJ, my best friend since I started college, smirked at me as she waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, sir. You got me."

That left one name on the Attendance sheet.

"Teddy Sanders?" No answer. "Teddy?" Still nothing. "Teddy Sanders, are you here?" I rolled my eyes. Surprise, surprise, Teddy cut class. Again. We had a grand total of four months left of our senior year at Braxton University, and Teddy had skipped pretty much every other class we'd had since the beginning of the year. Hell, since the beginning of college. Not that I was shocked, the guy was a fucking moron.

Bright removed his reading glasses and placed them back on his desk, sighing. He never bothered commenting on Teddy's absences anymore. After three and a half years, he was used to it. I could see him muttering something as he consulted another bit of paper, crossing something off of it, then writing something else.

"Okay," he said, standing up and looking over the ten of us that were in the class. Architecture wasn't exactly a popular major. "You've been back from spring break for what, a week? You've had time to get back in the groove of working, so I'm setting you all a kind of prep project." A groan rose up from the class. "Calm down, guys, you're not doing it by yourselves. I'm putting you into groups of two-"

"So pairs?" piped up AJ.

"Yes, AJ, pairs," said Bright. "I'm putting you into pairs, and over the next month you are going to be designing a eco-friendly waste system for a bungalow that leads to a drain system outside."

_Sounds like a really charming topic_, I thought, flicking my black hair over my shoulder and pulling a face at AJ, who crossed her eyes back at me and giggled.

"Is there a problem, Korbyn?" Shit, he'd seen me.

"No," I said quickly. "Nope. Absolutely zero problem over here."

"Oh good," he said, consulting his piece of paper again. "Right. Lena and Britney, you're together. Carson and Andrew, you two. Michael and Tommy, you. AJ and Dana. Korbyn, you were going to be a three with AJ and Dana, but since Teddy isn't here, Korbyn and Pete."

"Oh, fan-fucking-tastic," I muttered under my breath, and as the class stood up I saw AJ mouth, "_Shit,_" at me.

Pete Carter and I had known each other since the first grade. We'd grown up in Ardendale together. While the other boys at school had run around kicking soccer balls about or playing basketball, and the girls sat with their Barbies and their Bratz dolls, Pete and I would be sitting in the sandbox building castles and houses out of the sand and Duplo blocks. We slept round each others' houses, went out on our bikes after school, and if we came back splattered in mud - until we were like nine - one of our moms would put us in the same bath.

Pete and I were joined at the hip. Even through high school, we'd stayed together, even though he was your typical hot high school guy while I was leaning more towards being the alternative, Goth-like girl. But the summer before we started college, things changed.

Both of us had been accepted at Braxton University to do Architecture, and we were psyched. Then Pete's parents got divorced, and something in him snapped. I tried to be there for him, but suddenly, he stopped calling me. Stopped texting me. Stopped seeing me. The few times I did get through to him, he just cried, got angry and shouted at me.

So I stopped trying. We only saw each other when we would meet up once a week to go through the official stuff for Braxton. He'd decided he was going to try and join a fraternity; Delta Psi Beta, the biggest frat on campus. So, in an attempt to show him that I was still his friend and would always be there for him, I pledged for Zeta Tau Phi. Both of us were accepted to our chosen houses.

That's when Pete met Teddy, and I met AJ. AJ, with her blonde hair and brown eyes and petite figure. We looked like chalk and cheese, but personality-wise, we were almost identical. Same love of crappy comedy movies, superheros and all things WWE. The only thing we disagreed on was who we thought should be Divas Champion. She said her namesake, AJ Lee, whilst I insisted Brie Bella deserved the title again.

Pete, meanwhile, rapidly changed into another version - albeit, a smarter version - of Teddy. For almost four years, the two of them had worked their way up through Delta Psi until Teddy became President at the start of senior year, with Pete as his VP.

Me? I'd hated every second of my time as a sorority sister. Everyone but AJ was bitchy, vapid, high-pitched and just plain fucking annoying. I hated most of them, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. So when my older-by-fourteen-years brother Mac had announced that he and his wife, Kelly, were moving into a three-bedroomed house that was a twenty minute drive from the university, I backed out of Zeta Tau Phi as quickly as I could and moved in with them, on Mac's condition that I help look after their, at the time, newborn daughter Stella.

So that's where I've been the last borderline-seven months, away from the bitchiness and the stupid girls, able to just be me.

"Oh my God, Jesus is trying to make me kill myself this week," I hissed to AJ as I passed her, and she patted me comfortingly on the arm. I stood by the computer Pete had sat down by and slammed by bag down on the table next to it, dragging up a chair and sitting down on it, crossing one leg over the other and folding my arms. "Carter. Long time, no speak." No exaggeration, we had classes together every other day but Pete and I hadn't directly spoken in about four weeks.

"Radner," he greeted me, looking up from the computer and raking his eyes over me. "Looking understated as ever."

"Oh, bite me," I growled. It was no secret that I liked to dress a little differently to girls my age. Today, the outfit of choice was a tank top that read '_My body, my tattoo, my choice, fuck you_,' black Doc Martens boots and turquoise jeans that were the exact same shade as the highlights in my hair.

"Already have," he quipped. "You didn't taste that great. Like dirt and spite, even when we were ten."

"Look, Pete," I said, trying to keep my cool. "We are not gonna get through the next month of this project without killing each other if we can't just be civil."

"Hey man, I tried to be civil, you're the one who jumped down my fucking throat."

"No, you were ripping the shit out of my clothes!"

"I was just saying-"

"No, you were just being an asshole!"

"Korbyn!" Oh God, Bright had intervened. "Pete, is there a problem?"

"No, Professor, just some creative differences," Pete said smoothly as I sat there fuming.

"After five minutes?" Bright questioned.

"Korbie's very opinionated," Pete replied, and I scowled at him.

"Just try to keep the shouting at a minimum, okay?" Bright said, walking over to check out...I mean, check _on_ AJ and Dana.

I plastered a very obviously fake smile on my face. "So how's life over at Delta Psi? Still torturing those pledges of yours?" You always knew who the Delta pledges were on-site; they were the ones in bright pink crop tops that sported highly derogatory nicknames on them.

"It's initiation," Pete was quick to defend. "We all had to go through it too."

I snorted. "Yeah, and you looked like a fucking idiot, Dogfuck." I reminded him of the nickname _he'd_ been given for freshman year.

"But," he said, ignoring my dig. "We're moving houses. Too many brothers, not enough space."

"Oh yeah? Where you moving to?"

"Some place like a half hour away," he replied. "Sick house, we beat out this gay couple for it. We're moving in on Saturday."

"Nice," I said dryly. "Beating out a gay couple for a house. I bet you and Teddy are super proud of yourselves."

"Hey man, we didn't make them not raise their offer," Pete pointed out, dragging up a big sheet of paper from a cubbyhole under the desk and chucking out some markers too.

"Well, I'm sure you and your boyfriend will be very happy in your new house," I said, taking a red marker and printing **ECO-FRIENDLY WASTE SYSTEM **at the top of the paper. "And I seriously pity your new neighbors." Delta Psi parties were famous around campus; famous for being loud, bright and last all night. Those poor neighbors didn't know what was going to hit them.

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><p>Class dragged on so, so slowly. I had classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, two classes a day for an hour and a half at a time. Today was Wednesday, and I was so tired already. Even without Stella's rough night, I would still have been tired. My run-in with my ex-best friend had drained me.<p>

As soon as two o'clock hit, I was out of class, pushing past Pete, AJ, everyone, just to get out of school and into the parking lot. I located my red Fiat 500 - a 21st birthday present from Mom and Dad - and clambered into the driver's seat, chucking my bag in the passenger seat and peeling out of the lot.

I was home by half past. Kelly's car was in the garage and Mac was still at work, so there was plenty of space for me to park in the driveway for a change.

"Kelly? Stella? Are you here?" I called as I opened the door, just in case they'd gone to the park down the road or something.

"Hey Korbie!" Kelly called from the kitchen. "How was your day?"

"Shitty," I replied, kicking off my boots and mooching through to the living room, where Stella was sitting in her jumper-seat, giggling away to herself. "Hey Stella! How's my favourite little niece, huh?" She laughed at me and clapped before turning her attention back to the toys on her jumper. Clearly Kelly had been dosing her up on soothing gel all day.

"What happened today, then?" Kelly asked, coming through to the living room with two mugs of cappuccino. She handed one to me and we both sat down on the sofa, curling our legs up.

I sighed. "We've got this project in Architecture and Professor Bright divvied us all up into pairs."

"So I guess you weren't put with AJ?" Kelly said sympathetically.

"You would be correct," I said grimly. "Instead, he's put me with...um...did I ever tell you about Pete Carter?"

"Is he the boy you used to be close to when Mac and I started dating?"

I nodded. "And way after, too. Pete and I were besties until like, three years ago."

"He's the one who turned into an arsehole?"

I nodded again, smiling at Kelly's pronunciation of 'ass.' "Yeah, that one. His normal partner wasn't in class - not that _that_'s a surprise, Teddy never is - so Bright glued me to him instead of putting me with AJ and Dana like he was going to, the bastard."

"Is he still a total dick?" Kelly sipped her coffee almost intelligently.

"We spent half of the lesson arguing, let's use that as an answer. We've gotta to this project for the next fucking month and I swear to God, I'll end up killing him by the end of next week. It's like I never even knew him, and it sucks."

Kelly placed her mug down on the coffee table and took my free hand in both of hers. "Fuck him," was all she said, grinning at me. "Obviously he's an idiot if he dumped you for some frat boy."

"Oh Jesus, don't say dumped," I said, grimacing. "It makes it sound like we dated and we _so _did not." Okay, yes, there had been a few months in our sophomore year of high school where it looked like things might have developed that way, but that was quashed almost as quickly as it was started.

So for the next three hours Kelly and I sat around drinking coffee, gossiping and playing with Stella. As evening drew in, the little girl started to get a bit grizzly. Her soothing medicine was wearing off and she was starting to get pissy with anything and everything.

I held her in my arms as she made irritated whining noises, and Kelly was attempting to cheer her up with a rattle, a teddy bear, my iPhone. I'd protested quite loudly about that last one, especially after Stella had started gumming on it before deciding she didn't like it any more and dropped it.

"Oh my God, where is that fucking gel?!" I demanded.

"I'm not giving her anymore, I'll end up OD'ing her!" said Kelly.

"You can't OD on soothing gel! You can practically eat the whole fucking tube!" I snapped. I handed Stella over to her and ran a hand through my hair. "Stel, as much as I love you, you are causing me some serious stress right now."

It was at that point Kelly and I both heard the front door open, and Mac appeared in the hallway, closing the door behind him. "There are the girls!" he said with a smile.

"What's up, bro," I said. "It feels like I haven't seen you for like two days." Wednesdays were my early days; I was out of the house at 7am to get to Braxton for my 8am class, and Mac didn't leave the house until 8, so I hadn't seen him since last night's totally fun (not) all-nighter.

"Hey sis," he said, dumping his bag by the living room door and joining us. "How's it going, sweetie?" he asked Kelly.

"Good," she said, smiling back at him.

"What's happening?" he questioned, holding out his arms for Stella, who Kelly gratefully handed over.

"She's excited to see you," Kelly told him, even though Stella was still making her 'I'm pissed off with you all' noises.

"Wait, wait. Hey," Mac cooed at Stella, making her look at him. He started waggling his tongue about, making 'blurh' noises at her until she stopped whinging and started to giggle. He looked between me and Kelly triumphantly. "Man, parenting is easy! Look at that!"

"Yeah, for two hours a day," said Kelly, and I detected a hint of resentment in her tone.

"Yeah, Mac," I said, folding my arms. "I parent your kid more than you do."

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><p><strong>AN- So that's chapter one. I'm using this one to establish characters, relationships, set the scene and whatnot. Sorry not much movie stuff happened, but I do have my own storyline to add in as well. So let me know what you think! I know the **_**Neighbors **_**category is so small, so if you're reading this, gimme a follow, a favourite, a review, just something to let me know how you're liking it, and I hope to update soon! Happy New Year, one and all! Xx Gee xX**

**PS- I'm developing a Polyvore page for Korbie's outfits. You'll find that link on my profile, along with links to the actresses I'd have play Korbie and AJ, and also a picture of Korbie's car. Check 'em out!**

**PPS- I'm in the process of making a kind of trailer for the fic, but I'll have more details on that as and when it happens :D**


	2. Well, Shit

**A/N- Well, the pleasant surprise I've had at the positive response to my little fic has blown me away! Thank you so much, guys, I really appreciate the favourites and follows, and extra thanks to Jelly Boobs (best pen-name EVER, by the way XD) , lily1994, Anon123, Cloudcity'sBookworm, Nandarin, mymy15, BloodyAvenger21, LaceyLeanne1997, Skylar97 and Audrey for being my first reviewers!**

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><p><strong>Chapter Two- Well, Shit<strong>

I've been called a lot of things over the course of my life; snappish, rude, arrogant, aggressive. And yeah, while I am pretty much all of those things, the one thing I can never be accused of being is lazy.

To give Mac some time to just chill with his wife and daughter, I headed into the kitchen to cook us all dinner. In the weird mood I was in, I needed to do something practical to stop me driving back to campus, hunting down the Delta Psi house and strangling Pete with his own tie.

I took some eggs, ham and cheese out of the fridge for omlettes, plugged my Beats into my phone and selected a song that fir just _perfectly _with my current situation: _My Plague _by Slipknot. I especially liked the lyrics, "Your impossible ego fuck / Is like a megalomaniacal tab on my tongue / You fuckin' touch me I will rip you apart / I'll reach in and take a bite out of that shit you call a heart." Cannot imagine why.

So there I was, flitting around the kitchen in the sweats I'd changed into earlier, whisking eggs and mouthing along to the music. I probably looked like a really happy-go-lucky kinda gal to the untrained eye.

My music suddenly cut off abruptly when my phone started vibrating with a call. I pulled the headphones out of the jack and looked at the caller ID. It was AJ.

"Hey A," I said, accepting the call. "What's up?"

"What's up with _me_?!" she pretty much shrieked down the phone. "What's up with _you_?! Why the fuck did you take off at the end of class like that?"

"I know, I'm sorry, but-" I tried to reply, but AJ was in full flow.

"We were supposed to go to Starbucks! I had to go with _Dana_!" she fumed. "I already had to talk to her all day and you _know _I only moderately tolerate her in class! She never fucking shut up about this new Persian kitten she's got!"

"I'm sorry, I just-" I tried again, and again I was cut off.

"You could have at least said bye, bitch!"

"Amira-Jane, shut the fuck up and let me speak!" I snapped, and AJ went quiet. "Jesus, woman! I'm sorry, for the third time! I just had to get out of there, okay? Pete was driving me crazy! I honestly believe if I'd stayed any longer, I'd've fucking decapitated him!"

"Oh man," AJ said sympathetically. "It was that bad, huh?"

"You don't know the half of it," I said grimly, supporting the phone between my ear and shoulder as I tipped some whisked eggs into a frying pan. "Every other sentence out of the boy's mouth was a dig at me, the bastard."

"Sometimes I really do fail to believe that you two were ever even friends, let alone as close as you said you used to be," AJ said.

"I'd think that too if I wasn't the one who'd lived it."

"Korbie, are you...are you sure there wasn't unfinished business when you guys stopped being friends?"

I narrowed my eyes, even though AJ couldn't see me. "What do you mean?"

"Look, don't bitch out, but..." AJ paused. "Was there anything, like, romantic left open?"

Now I was the one who paused. "...are you fucking serious?" I snorted. "Me and Pete? Romantic? Oh my God, you are too funny, AJ. No, never. Not at...well, there was one time, but we were sixteen and...you don't need to know about that. The point is, we friendzoned hard, and now we hate each other. Case closed."

"So you're sure?" she said doubtfully. "You don't sound like you're even convincing yourself. Like, at all."

"Yeah, we're changing the topic now," I said quickly. "I gotta go."

"Oh come on, Korbie, I didn't mean to piss you off!" AJ said anxiously.

"No, it isn't you," I promised. "I'm making dinner for me, Mac and Kelly, and it's finished. I swear, I'm not pissed."

"Okay, if you say so. What are you doing tomorrow? It's your free day, right?"

"Yeah, I'll probably be doing some of this waste management bullshit. I can guarantee Pete won't do jack shit just to irritate me."

"Okey dokey, then. Catch you later, bae."

"See ya, baby g."

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><p>I didn't kill anyone with my slightly burned omlettes, so that was my achievement of the evening. As the night drew in, I curled up on the sofa with my sketchpad, a pencil set and the Architecture brief, setting to drawing out a rough outline of the interior toilet system. Mac and Kelly, meanwhile, were lying with Stella under her baby gym, occasionally whacking at the stuffed animals above them.<p>

"This is delightful," Mac said contently. "This is awesome, this thing. We should get one of these above our bed."

"Yo, if that's the case then we're making it a family thing. Mom never got me one," I chipped in as Kelly's iPod sounding off with a FaceTime request, which she answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey! Oh my God! You guys _have _to come out with me! I haven't seen you in _forever_!" Paula's, a close family, voice filtered out, and I immediately dropped what I was doing and moved off the sofa into the frame behind Kelly.

I loved Paula; she was thirty-three years old but had the mindset of someone my age. Being honest, I didn't think she planned on growing up any time soon. She partied harder than anyone I knew.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Mac asked her.

"Okay, my friend is spinning at the Royalton tonight," she replied. "There's a rumor that Prince might perform!"

I snorted. "Yeah, sure. Prince, here, in this deadbeat city. Makes perfect sense."

"I _really _need to get out of the house," Kelly said contemplatively, looking between Mac and I.

I softened. "Yeah, after the day I've had, a night out would be pretty good..."

"I have not been out since Jimmy and I got divorced," added Paula, putting on her pitiful voice. "And I really need you there. Please?" Jimmy Blevins was Mac's best friend, co-worker and Paula's now-ex-husband. He was the only man I knew who was simpler in the head than my brother.

"How do we do this?" Mac mused. He turned to me. "Korbyn, pretty please can you babys-"

"No," I interrupted. "I am not being left alone to stew in my own thoughts while you two rave it up. Ain't happening. I'm coming too."

"Fuck. Fine. Why are you so awkward? What should I do? Do I call the babysitter bunch?" he asked Kelly.

"I don't know about that," she said with a frown. "Let's just... It's too late. We'll..."

"Why don't you drop it at the fire station?" suggested Paula.

"We can't- what are you talking about?" Mac said incredulously. "That's not how it works!"

"The baby drop?" Paula elaborated.

"Okay, _no_," Kelly said firmly.

"I'm kidding," Paula backtracked. "What, like, having a baby, you like, lost your sense of humor? Korbyn, you got the joke, right?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I got it," I said with a smile. "Mac used to ask Mom and Dad to do that with me until I turned four."

"What are you doing?!" said Mac, looking at the iPod screen. I only now realized that Paula wasn't actually paying attention to any of us; she was applying eyeliner using the iPod camera.

"I'm using the little box in the FaceTime to put make-up on," she replied.

"You're not even looking at us, are you?"

"No," she said simply. "Who looks at the other people when they FaceTime?"

"I'd say ninety-three percent of people with an Apple product?" I offered.

"Shut up, Korbie! Why are you guys not coming out?" she demanded. "Is fucking Jimmy there? Jimmy!"

"No, Jimmy's not here," Mac said tiredly.

"Korbyn doesn't want to stay home and we don't have a babysitter, so..." Kelly let her sentence trail off.

"Hey, don't be blaming me for this!" I exclaimed.

"Hellooo? Fucking bring her," Paula said like it was obvious.

Mac let out a scoff, looking at Kelly. "No...?" he drew out, looking at her for confirmation. "...Yes? ...No? Yes? What are you doing? What are you thinking?"

"I say, we fucking do it." I stood up and stretched, fluffing my hair out with my hands.

"Let's just do it!" Kelly agreed, sounding somewhat impulsive.

"This could be a doorway to, like, a whole new life!" Mac said excitedly. "Where we have it all! We have fun and a baby!"

"That's fantastic!" Kelly cheered.

"This is the moment!" Mac hissed so the iPod wouldn't pick it up.

"This is it!"

"Let's do it!"

"I need to go out!"

"We've got this!" I put in.

"Okay!" Mac said louder, addressing Paula.

"Let's go!" we all said.

"I'm down," said Kelly, bending to pick up Stella. "Little chicken! Come on!"

"Baby's first rave!" I cried out, throwing my arms in the air.

"Baby's first rave!" repeated Mac.

"Baby's first rave!" echoed Kelly.

"Baby's first rave!" Mac said again, adding in some dubstep beats. Within seconds, all four of us had joined in, repeating 'baby's first rave' and adding beats until...

"BABY'S FIRST RAVE!"

Kelly and I ran upstairs to change. I threw on a pair of black jeans and some heeled boots and seized a handbag, barelling back down the stairs to help Mac gather up stuff for Stella. It looked like we were already to go. Then:

"Wait! Shit! Diaper bag! It needs to be restocked!"

"She needs an extra onesie in case she craps herself!"

"I think I better pump!"

"You gotta pump?"

"I think I need to pump!"

"She wants your necklace! Give me your necklace! Now go pump!"

"Everyone hold up, I need to take a dump!"

"Korbyn, there's not time for you to take a shit!"

"We should get the cooler!"

"Okay, here we go!"

"Wait, if we're bringing the swing, let's just bring the Jumperoo!"

"We have room. I think we have room!"

"Butt Paste!"

"I don't know where the Butt Paste is!"

"Binky! Binky! Binky!"

"I don't know where the Binky is!"

"Guys, why is the Binky in my make-up bag?!"

The next thing I knew was waking up to Stella letting out a laugh. I was draped over Mac with my arms around his neck and my face pressed against his shoulder. We were passed out by the front door, as was Kelly. Muted sunlight was streaming through the glass panel of the door: we'd been there nearly all night.

"We fell asleep!" Mac mumbled, pushing me off him.

"Let's go," yawned Kelly. "Let's go."

"Oh, fuck my life," I groaned, rubbing my eyes. "I can't feel my legs."

Mac's phone beeped with a message. "Wait. Shit, another video."

It was Paula again. "Best. Night. _Ever_. Look at how much food I just ordered!" She panned the camera around a table filled to the brim with platters of God only knows what. "I'm not even hungry! It's so wasteful!"

"We missed it," Mac muttered as the video ended, causing Kelly to whack him on the thigh. "Shit! Don't hit me!"

"I'm so tired!" Kelly said tearfully.

"Guys. It's four thirty-three in the morning," I said, feeling close to crying myself. Why could I never just have a simple night out. Why. "I think we're done here."

"Let's just go to sleep," suggested Mac.

"You've never had a better idea in your life," I said quietly, staggering to my feet and dragging myself up to my room. I stripped out of my tight, constricting clothing and pulled my sleep shorts/tank top on. Today had just been one lump of shit after another.

As I climbed under my duvet, all I could think was how fucking grateful I was that I didn't have to go to college tomorrow.

* * *

><p>The next two days passed so fucking slowly. On Thursday, all I wanted to do was sleep. I didn't even bother getting dressed. Instead, I slouched around the house in my PJs all day, eating ice-cream out of the tub and half-heartedly sketching out some more stuff for Architecture.<p>

Sure, I helped Kelly out with Stella too, but mostly I just stuck to my bedroom all day. I was just in the most unsociable mood ever. I played my music loud, kept the door firmly shut and turned off my phone. Maybe I was PMSing. Who knew? Because I sure as shit didn't.

Friday was just a massive pile of fuck-fuckedy-fuck-fuck-fuck. I left the house in good time; one o'clock to make my half two class. But of course, halfway to Braxton I just _had _to somehow manage to get a flat tire. That took forty minutes out of my travel time because I had to call a fucking mechanic to come change the fucking thing.

Then, just as things were looking up, I got caught in a minor traffic jam just ten minutes away from the college because some fucker decided to have the fucking indecency to crash into a fucking tree. So in the end, I screeched into the student parking lot twenty minutes late, skidding into class five minutes later.

"Oh my God, Professor Bright, I am just...I'm so sorry!" I gasped, flopping down into the seat beside Pete, kicking his bag off said seat and ignoring the affronted look he gave me.

"Korbyn, what time do you call this?" Bright said, looking so unimpressed. "You're nearly half an hour later, where have you _been_?"

"It's a long story, Professor, I just-"

"It isn't good enough! You're twenty-one years old, you are in college! Petty excuses don't cut it here!"

"It isn't an excuse, I promise, I-"

"Well if it isn't an excuse, then let's hear it! Come on!"

"Sir, honestly, I've had the morning from hell!" I exclaimed, pretty close to tears, I was so stressed. "I got a flat tire, there was a jam because someone crashed into a tree and I ran over a squirrel when I turned into the parking lot! I really didn't intend to be late, I am so, so sorry!"

Apparently my desperate and vaguely hysterical demeanor had had some kind of effect on Bright, because his face softened, and he sighed. "I apologise, Korbyn. Clearly you are telling the truth. I'm sorry it's been such a rough morning, but I can't let a half hour lateness pass. See me at the end of the day, please."

"Yes, sir," I said quietly, lowering my eyes and pulling my sketchpad out of my bag.

"Man, you look like shit, Radner," said Pete, staring at me.

"Shut the fuck up, Pete," I said, not even looking at him. "Do _not _piss me off today, or I swear to God, I'll put you in a fucking hospital."

"Come on, Korbsy, don't be like that. We're still friends, right?" Pete smirked at me.

"No, we're not," I said, my tone hard. "I hate you. I want to shit on your face."

"Wow. You have such a feminine touch with your way with words," he said, grinning. And that was pretty much how the rest of the hour of class continued, followed by the next hour and a half evening class we had at half past five. By the time seven o'clock rolled around, I had no fight left in me.

While Pete and I had actually made a pretty good leeway with our plans, it had been a total of two and half hours of constant digs at each other, however obvious or thinly veiled. Bright then held me back for fifteen minutes to check that I was 'alright' and if 'things at home were okay' and 'did I have anything I wanted to talk about?' I assured him that I was fine, because I was. I was just having a bad couple of days.

Still, I was more than extremely grateful to get home. I crept in the door at just before eight o'clock, trying to be as silent as possible because I knew Kelly would be trying to get Stella to sleep. There was no way I wanted to disturb them.

I kicked my boots off and edged my way into the living room, collapsing face-first on the sofa next to Mac, who was watching _Breaking Bad_.

"Hey kiddo, how was your day?" he asked, patting my legs, which I had stretched across his lap.

"Shit," I answered monotonously, my voice muffled by the pillow I had my face pressed into. "Please feel free to suffocate me at any point you like."

"Jesus, Korb, what happened?"

"Flat tire, traffic jam, dead squirrel, Pete Carter. Precisely in that order."

"Pete Carter? Fuck, I haven't seen him since you guys were like, seven." When I was in second grade, Mac had stopped coming home for holidays while he was at college. He'd been twenty-one and hadn't seen the point anymore, plus he'd just met Kelly. "How is he?"

"A raging douchebag," I replied, rolling around so I could look at my brother. "Did Mom never tell you? Kelly's never said anything? We had a massive fight the summer before we started Braxton."

"You know Mom never bothers telling me anything like that."

"Well, to be fair, you probably didn't really need to know about all that girly, hormonal shit anyway. But the short and short of it is, we pretty much hate each other now, and we have done for almost four years. But now we've been shoved together to do this shitty project. And I mean literally shitty- it's about waste disposal."

"And he's being an ass about it?"

"Essentially, yeah." I yawned, stretching my arms above my head. "I just hate comparing how we used to be to how we are now." _It breaks my heart_, is something I certainly did not say out loud.

"Well, fuck that dude," Mac said with his signature grin. "You're fucking awesome, and you know it."

"Hell yeah, I know it!" I exclaimed, grinning back. "I am a strong, independent woman who don't need no man!"

"That's my baby sis," Mac said, pulling me into a tight bear-hug, a hug I was quick to return.

Leave it to my big brother to make me feel so much better on even the shittiest of days.

* * *

><p>"I WANNA WATCH YOU BURN! BURN!" I shout-sang as I got dressed on Saturday morning, jamming out to Papa Roach's <em>Burn<em>. "BURN! I WANNA WATCH YOU BUUURN! YOU'RE GONNA GET WHAT YOU DESERVE! YOU NEVER LEARN! YE-AH!"

It was a relatively warm day, and Mac, Kelly and Stella were all outside, having breakfast on the front porch. Well in my book, sun = show off some skin, so I pulled on my official WWE 'One vs. All' Roman Reigns t-shirt and a pair of red shorts, leaving my feet bare. I was in the process of trying my hair up when I heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside and a horn going off, followed by Mac's voice floating through my open window.

"Moving truck! Moving truck!"

I dropped my hairbrush and hurried over to the window, pushing the curtain out of the way. Sure enough, a U-Haul truck was coming to a stop next door. New neighbors! I'd completely forgotten that house was even up for sale.

I grabbed the nearest pair of shoes - some patterned Havaianas - and stuck them on, running down the stairs and out the front door.

"New neighbors!" I exclaimed, skidding to a stop by Mac, who was chanting, "Gay couple?!" a few times.

"I'm kinda offended I was never informed of potential...new...neigh...bors..." My voice trailed off as I took in what Mac had been saying.

Apparently, a gay coyple had been in the running for this house next door.

What had Pete told me about the house Delta Psi had just bought?

_Sick house, we beat out this gay couple for it. We're moving in on Saturday__._

"Oh God, please, no!" I whispered, just as the passenger door of the truck opened, and Teddy and Pete stepped down.

Oh. Fuck.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- So I think we can all agree shit is going to hit a very large fan in the next chapter. But that will be then. This is now. I really hoped you liked the chapter! The amount of reviews/favourites/follows I got for the first chapter is insane! Like, I honestly can't thank you guys enough! I'm sorry it's taken a while to update too, so thanks for the patience! I hope to update quicker this time! Xx Gee xX**

**PS- Where my **_**Supernatural **_**fans at? Me and my best friend, are currently in the middle of writing a joint story on her profile called **_**Better The Angel You Know**_**, and it would mean so much if you guys would read it, maybe leave it a little review and a follow? It's linked on my profile under Joint Stories! As is my finally finished trailer for **_**The Girl Next Door **_**and a Korbyn/Pete tribute, plus the **_**TGND **_**Polyvore page! Check 'em out!**


	3. What Is and Has Been

**A/N- And here is chapter three! Sorry it's taken a while but, y'know, coursework and all that. Super big thanks to Cloudcity'sBookworm, Audrey, Lil-Randomer, Skylar97 and J for reviewing!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three-<strong>** What Is and Has Been**

_**Sixteen**__** Years Ago**_

_"Mommy, Mommy, look!" I cried, pointing out the window. "There's people across the street!"_

_"Yes, darling, there's always people across the street," Mom said, looking at me from where she was sitting on the sofa, sewing the knee of my big brother Mac's jeans together. "It's summer, people like to go for walks."_

_"No, Mommy, no!" I insisted__,__ frustrated, jumping down from the window ledge and running over to her. "There's __new__ people across the street! In Mrs Baker's old house! Come see, come see!" I grabbed Mom's hand and dragged her over to the window, pointing again._

_A big truck was parked outside Mrs Baker's house. She had died not long ago. Mom and Daddy went to her funeral. Mom and I stood there staring out the window as a woman and a man took two final boxes out of the big truck, paid the driver and waved him off. A little boy suddenly slid out of the car parked in their driveway, running over to his dad, who picked him up and swung him around._

_"Mommy, look! A boy!" I cried. "He could be my friend! Oh please, can we go and say hello?"_

_"Korbyn, they've literally only just moved in, I don't think they want us-"_

_"Please, Mommy! PLEASE!"_

_"No, Korbyn, we're not-"_

_"PLE__EEEAAA__ASE!"_

_Mom huffed out a sigh. "Okay, fine! Go and find your shoes!"_

_"Yay!" I scrambled down from the ledge and hurried into the hall, pulling on my purple shoes and jumping up and down a few times in excitement. __"New friends! Mommy, this is gonna be so fun!"_

"_We're going over there for __five minutes__, Korbie,__" Mom warned me, slipping my cardigan over my shoulders._

"_Yes, Mommy, okay," I said quickly so she would hurry up and open the door. She did so, and I shot out of it, Mom having to grab hold of my arm so I didn't run out in the road. Mac had done that when he was little, and he got hit by a car and broken his leg. Mommy told me this story so I wouldn't do it; I hadn't been born when it happened._

_We made sure to check the street from both ways, and then Mommy took my hand and walked me across to the other path, where the new people were looking in the boxes on their grass. The boy was sitting on the front steps with a teddy bear, talking to it._

"_Hi there," Mom said, smiling at the new mommy and daddy, who looked up from their boxes and smiled back._

"_Hi," the new mommy said._

"_I'm Amy Radner," Mom introduced herself, then looked down at me. "And this is my daughter Korbyn. We live across the street. We just wanted to introduce ourselves." She held out her hand to the other mommy._

"_Oh, hi! Thank you so much!" the other mommy said, shaking my mommy's hand. "Sorry, it's just a bit of a crazy day, we weren't expecting anyone to be so friendly!" She and Mom both laughed, and the other mommy leaned down to shake my hand too. "Hi there, honey."_

_I smiled at her, but I had my thumb in my mouth; I was suddenly a bit shy._

"_Well, my name's Louise Carter," Other Mommy said. "This is my husband, Simon." She pointed at the daddy before nodding over at the boy on the steps. "And that's our son, Pete."_

"_Hello, Pete!" my mommy called to him, and he looked up from his teddy bear and waved at us. "How old is he?" she asked Mrs Louise._

"_He's five. He's starting elementary school in September."_

_Mommy looked at me. "Just like you, Korbie. Why don't you go and say hello to him?"_

"_I...um...I...I won't know what to say," I said quietly, my thumb still in my mouth as I looked stupidly at the ground. I didn't like it when I got shy like this. I was a big girl, I shouldn't be scared._

_Mrs Louise patted me on the shoulder. "Go on, sweetheart, it's okay. Pete will like to talk to you. You'll both have a friend to talk to when you start school."_

_I looked past Mrs Louise and Mr Simon at Pete, who was talking to his teddy bear again, and nodded. "Okay." So as Mommy and Mrs Louise started talking about what the neighborhood was like, I slowly made my way up the garden path._

_I stood at the bottom of the porch steps, sucking my thumb and scuffing my shoes on the path. Pete looked up from his teddy and stared at me. "Hello," he said._

"_Hello," I replied, my voice funny-sounding from my thumb so it sounded more like, "Heggo."_

"_Who are you?"_

"_My name's Korbie. And you're Pete. Your mommy told me."_

"_Hi Korbie. How old are you?" Pete asked, standing up and coming down the steps to stand next to me. He was taller than I was, which scared me a bit. What if he was a boy who liked to tease girls who were smaller than them?_

"_Five," I said. "But I will be six in February." I stood up straighter, my head higher._

"_Haha! I'm older than you!" he cheered. "I'm going to be six in November!"_

"_Well...my big brother will be twenty in October!" I said quickly. "So he's older than __you__! Do you have any brothers?__"_

"_No," Pete said quietly, and I saw that he looked sad. "I don't have any sisters either. It's just me."_

"_I don't see my brother very often," I told him so he'd feel better. "He goes to a big school now. A uni-ver-sity, Mommy calls it. He only comes home at Christmas. And now, in summer."_

"_Maybe he doesn't come home because he doesn't want to see you," Pete suggested, and he started laughing. At first, I thought he was being mean. Then I realised he was joking, and I started laughing too._

"_He does too want to see me!" I giggled. "He says I'm his perfect princess!" I stuck my tongue out at Pete, who crossed his eyes and stuck his out back._

"_But I thought princesses were meant to be pretty?"_

"_Hey!" I picked up a handful of grass and mud that was lying on the path and threw it at him, and it splattered all over his red t-shirt. "I am so pretty!"_

"_You throw like a girl!" Pete laughed, and he bent down and threw some mud back at me._

"_I __am__ a girl!__" I retorted, throwing another handful back. The next thing I knew, Pete and I were hurling lumps of damp mud and grass at each other, hitting each other in the face, the tummy, the hair, laughing as we did so._

"_Korbyn! Korbyn Marie Radner, what on Earth are you doing?!"_

"_Peter Carter, stop that right now! What a way to behave in front of our new neighbors!"_

_Our mommies started to run up the path, looking completely shocked. My mommy grabbed the back of my cardigan and pulled me away, and Pete's mommy grabbed him around the waist and lifted him up, making him drop the mud in his hand._

"_Korbyn, what the hell was that all about?" Mommy demanded, looking very cross with me._

"_Peter, honestly! I thought we raised you better than this!" Pete's mommy was just as cross as my mommy._

"_Sorry Mommy," Pete and I mumbled at the same time. Then we looked up, and we couldn't stop ourselves; we grinned at each other and started laughing again. It felt like we would never stop._

* * *

><p>I. Felt. Sick. Honestly, truly sick. Why. Why the fuck was all this shit happening to me? What the fuck had I done in the past week that warranted me having the piles of shit that had been the last few days? It was because I'd forgotten to hand in the concluding paragraph to my <strong>FAMOUS EUROPEAN BUILDINGS OF THE 18<strong>**TH**** CENTURY** essay, wasn't it?

Mac, Kelly and I stood there on the porch, watching as all the Delta Psi pledges started dragging a ton of furniture out of the back of the moving truck, supervised by Teddy and Pete - the Chief Cunts of the frat - and also Scoonie, the so-called 'big-dicked boy wonder' and Garf, who was actually an alright guy.

"What is this?" muttered Mac. "What are they doing? And what are these kids in the pink shirts?" More Deltas were arriving, on bikes, on scooters, by foot. Tons of them were pledges, too.

Teddy headed up their pathway with a keg on his shoulder, followed by some brothers carrying the Greek house letters. That was when it clicked in Kelly's brain.

"Is that a _fraternity_?" she exclaimed, horrified.

"Ding, ding, ding," I mumbled. "We have a winner."

"Yeah, they got big Greek letters," Mac added. "Looks like a fraternity." He turned to me. "Korb, is that one of Braxton's?"

I nodded slowly, feeling a serious migraine coming on. "Yup. I hate to say it, but that is the biggest frat on campus. Delta Psi Beta."

"Shit. That was a frat when I was there," Mac groaned, peering at the Delta dudes. "Oh my God, look at that guy!" He'd just spotted Teddy. I could just tell. "That guy's the sexiest guy I've ever seen!"

Well, I wasn't going to disagree with him. However, I did feel that now was an excellent time for me to keep my mouth shut; if I opened it, I would projectile vomit into the nearest bush.

"He looks like someone a gay guy designed in a laboratory!" Mac continued.

"Look at his arms," said Kelly, sounding almost in awe.

"Oh my God, they're like two giant, veiny dicks." Yup. Leave it to Mac to make a charming comment like that. _I should start sewing the best ones on cushions_, I thought.

"It's like a gun show," Kelly mused.

"They're not that impressive," I mumbled as we watched Teddy pick up his girlfriend, Brooke, and pull her into a kiss.

"Look at the blonde," Kelly murmured.

Mac immediately started looking in the opposite direction to cover up the fact he'd been staring at Brooke since she'd come into eye-shot. "I don't see which one you're..."

"Oh, you don't know who I'm talking about?" teased Kelly.

"That blonde dude with the red sleeves?" Mac questioned innocently. "He's a handsome guy." It only then clicked with me that Mac was talking about Pete; he couldn't even recognize him. Thank _fuck _for that.

"What do we do?!" Kelly asked shrilly, clearly starting to panic. I didn't blame her. Delta Psi were threatening to break up her near-perfect suburban life.

"I can go over there and kick the shit out of some bitches," I suggested.

"Woah, woah, Korb! _No_! I'm not letting you get arrested for causing bodily harm, Mom will kill me. Okay, okay. I know what we do," Mac said, attempting to soothe Kelly. "They're gonna be loud, obviously. And they're gonna fucking party a lot."

"Baby, this is a fucking nightmare!" exclaimed Kelly. Man, she was freaking out hardcore. I hadn't even broken to them the fact that Delta Psi tended to have a party every fucking night.

"I agree!" said Mac. "We need to go over there. We need to fucking tell them _not_ to do that! Right now!"

That caught me off guard. "Woah, woah, woah. Hold up! Say what now?!"

"We're going over there and telling them to shut the fuck up!" Mac affirmed. "As soon as they move in, they know this neighborhood doesn't stand for that shit! Ad that, we're fucking grown-ups, we have a baby, and they need to be cool! They need to be cool to us, okay! But...okay, wait. Maybe we don't come on strong, though. Maybe we come on... We act cool. We come on like peers."

"Or we don't come on to them at all! I like that idea! That is a great idea!" I pleaded, though Kelly was agreeing with her husband.

"Totally. We be cool," she said. "We take them a joint."

"Ooh!" Mac made a noise of appreciation. "We roll them a joint!"

"Roll them a spliff."

"Give that to them! Then we seem cool. They're thinking, 'Oh, they're like us. This could be us in a few years!'" Mac was getting looking way too deeply into this.

"Yes, respect!" Kelly agreed.

"They'll want us to like them!" said Mac. "Then we say, 'By the way, keep it down.'"

"Exactly!" Kelly concurred. "Well...we won't say it like that. We'll just...I'll say it. Like, we'll just... You know..." Kelly suddenly threw her head to the side like she was having a minor seizure. "Keep it down."

"What the _fuck_ was that?" I demanded, vaguely disturbed by the head movement.

"Yeah, you're doing it a little weird," Mac told her.

"A little?" I said disbelievingly. "Kel, you looked like you were having a stroke."

"Do it again," said Mac. "Do it normal."

"I'll throw it away," she replied. "Just like, you know-" she did the same head movement again. "If you could just keep it down."

"You did it again!" I exclaimed. "Stop twitching like that!"

"Do it normal!" Mac repeated himself with a laugh.

"I'll get it!" Kelly insisted.

"It's an important, key phrase here!"

"Alright, you do it!" Kelly told him. "You do it!"

"Okay, watch," he said confidently. "I'm just gonna do it like this." That was when my brother made a hand motion that looked like a gay man trying to swat away a mosquito. "Keep it down." He made the motion again. "Keep it down."

My jaw dropped in sheer disbelief. "I didn't think it was possible. But that was even worse. Look, we are looking _way_ too deeply into this! If you want to go over there and tell them to shut the fuck up, then go over there and tell them to shut the fuck up!"

Mac and Kelly looked at each other. "It's not gonna be that simple. We'll look so _lame_!" said Mac.

"Mac, you are lame," I've informed him. "You've been lame for thirty-five years, you're gonna _be _lame in thirty-five years, learn to deal with it! Jesus!"

"Okay, fine, you're so smart, so confident, you go fucking tell them to keep it the fuck down!" Mac retorted.

"Yeah!" added Kelly. "They're all your age, Korbie, they'll listen to you!"

"Woah, woah, woah, woah!" I said hastily, raising my arms in a surrendering gesture. "The fuck am I going over there! No! No _way_!"

"Yeah you are," said Mac. "Kids listen to other kids!"

"Not when they're-" I began heatedly, but I clamped my mouth shut. I'd been about to say, "Not when they're the two of the people I hate most in the world!" but I had a feeling Mac would start asking questions; questions I just didn't want to answer right now. "Urgh! Okay, fine!" I said instead. "Just...give me five minutes!"

I ran back inside the house and up the stairs, going into my room and grabbing a pair of big, dark sunglasses and a beanie hat. If I was going over there, then I was not going to be recognizable. I pulled the hat over my head and stuffed my hair underneath it so not a single tendril poked out - especially none of the blue, that would be a complete giveaway - and shoved the sunglasses over my eyes. They were so big that they took up about 50% of my face.

As I came back down the stairs, Kelly was finishing strapping Stella into her stroller. She too had a pair of sunglasses on, though I was pretty sure she was wearing hers in an attempt to look 'down with the kids.' Mac was also trying this out, by wearing a baseball cap at a stupid angle.

He paused when he saw me. "Er, Korb? Why do you look like you're about to rob a bank?"

"Can we just go?" I sighed. "Please?" So we did. We headed straight over to Delta Psi Beta, Kelly and Mac attempting to look cool by grinning at every frat boy we passed, Mac occasionally throwing up a gang sign. I just trudged along behind them, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

We drew to a stop at the bottom of their porch, where Pete and Teddy were both deep in conversation. Well, there was no turning back now, unless I somehow found a way to just magically disappear from existence. I was actually tempted to go and hide in the back of the moving van.

Then Mac decided to speak. "Wicca-wazzup?"

_Kill me_.

Pete looked over Teddy's shoulder at us, which in turn caused Teddy to look too. Both of them looked highly confused, not that that was an emotion Teddy was unfamiliar with.

"Hey!" Kelly called.

"How's it going?" added Mac.

"Are you our new neighbors?" Teddy asked.

"We're your new neighbors!" Mac confirmed cheerfully. I have no idea why, but everyone seemed to find this piece of information worthy of cheering, and Pete and Teddy came down from the porch as half the main frat filtered outside from the house.

"I'm Teddy, this is Pete," King Frat Douche introduced them, both of them shaking Kelly and Mac's hands. They then tried for me, but I shoved both hands firmly in my pockets and scowled.

"...Pete? Shit," I heard Mac mutter. I glanced up at him through my sunglasses, and he was looking back. I nodded a single nod that told Mac his thoughts were correct; this was Pete Carter standing in front of us.

"What's going on?" Teddy said good-naturedly. "And who's this little lady?" He and Pete both squatted down to look at Stella, who, being the complete charmer she was, smiled a gummy grin back at them.

"Oh, that's so sweet," said Kelly. "No one ever knows she's a girl."

"What?" Now it was Pete's turn to speak. "Of course she is!" He pulled a face at Stella. "Because you're a little princess, aren't you? You're a little princess!" He grinned at Kelly and Mac. "She just scrunched her little nose!"

All the false happiness going on right now made me want to throw up. How the fuck were Mac and Kelly buying any of this bullshit?!

"What's her name?" asked Teddy.

"Stella," replied Kelly.

"That's so cute," Teddy said.

"Best name ever, are you kidding?" agreed Pete, and the entire posse behind him made varying noises of agreement.

"She's a little flirt," Kelly said, but the tone she used was softened with love.

"Like her mom, I bet," Teddy said, a comment that seemed to ruffle a few of Mac's feathers.

"Mm," was all he said, before changing the subject. "And this is my sister, Kor-" I quickly cleared my throat in a way that clearly meant DO NOT TELL THEM MY NAME. "Kor- K- Ka- Kaitlyn. My sister...Kaitlyn."

"Yeah? What's up, Kaitlyn?" Teddy said smoothly, winking at me.

I shrugged at him and nodded. If I spoke, game over. Game over for me being an immature twat.

"Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know that in this neighborhood, we _don't_ keep off the grass." Mac opened up the tin he kept his joints in and offered it to Teddy. "You know what I'm sayin'?" Every single person on the porch started cheering as Teddy took the joint out of the tin and lit it.

"A joint?" he said almost graciously. "Thank you, guys."

"Also, if you could maybe just sometimes-" Mac began.

"Keep it down!" Kelly shouted over the top of him. I face-palmed so hard it felt like my palm was going to crack through my skull.

Mac looked just so awkward. "Alright," was all he said.

"Well, I mean, if you guys ever need anything, or we get too noisy," Teddy offered. "Just talk to me, or talk to Pete. We'll take care of it."

"Hey, same with us," joked Mac. "I mean, we get pretty loud over there. _Game of Thrones, _we get loud. When Khaleesi comes on, I'm like-" and he and Kelly both started making the weirdest shouting noises that caused me to deliver a sharp blow to Mac's ribs that signified he needed to shut the fuck up, now.

The frat clearly thoughts so too, as they let out the world's most uncomfortable laughs. Well, it was nice to know there was one thing we could agree on. A highly awkward silence followed this, with no one really knowing what to do or say. I rocked back and forth on my heels, praying to God that it wouldn't fall on me to break the silence.

Luckily, Mac got in there first. "Alrighty. Dope." _On second thoughts, I would have preferred the awkward silence_, I thought. Everyone started trying to talk at the same time, saying bye to Stella as Kelly and Mac said their own goodbyes, so I took this opportune moment to attempt to just quietly slip away. But as I turned around...

"Oh my God, _Korbyn_?" Brooke spoke up in her typical girlish voice. "Korbyn Radner, is that you?"

I froze. Shit. How did she-? I raised a hand to the back of my neck; some of my hair had fallen out of the back of my beanie hat. My very blue, very me, very significant streaks were on full display to every single person on the porch. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

I slowly turned back around, pulling the hat off my head and fluffing my hair out, my mouth set into a grin that bordered on unstable-looking. _Fuck the Reigns t-shirt. The way I must look now, I'd be better suited to Dean Ambrose. _

"Hi Brooke," I said, my voice strained. "How's it going?"

"Oh. My. God." That came from Pete. Of course it did. "Radner? No fucking way. _You _live next door too?"

I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head for the sole reason of scowling at him. "Looks that way, doesn't it? Fucking lucky us. Maybe we can carpool."

Pete started laughing, bent over, clapping like a dying seal. "This is too fucking good. Oh man. What was it you were saying in class? How much you pity our new neighbors? How ironic."

"Shut up. You laugh like you're choking on a dick," I snapped.

"Come on, neighbor, don't be like that," Teddy decided to chip in there. "You be cool with us, we'll be cool with you."

"Oh, fuck off, Teddy. You could not be any less involved in this conversation if you tried," I snarled.

"Hey, hey, chill," Mac said quickly, grabbing my arm and pulling me back. I only now realized that I'd slowly been advancing on Pete and Teddy, my fist clenched so hard that my nails were digging into my palms.

"Yeah, _Kaitlyn_, chill out," mocked Pete. "A false name? I have to admit, I didn't think you'd get much weirder than you are, but hey, kudos for trying."

"I'll break your fucking legs, Carter," I warned him. "You stupid, ignorant _fuck_."

"Okaaay, I think we're good here." Mac pulled me back even farther, so forcefully this time that I actually stumbled. "I'm sorry about her, she's been like this since she was like, three," he apologized. "Not so good at the friend thing, are you, Korb?"

"Mac!" I gasped, incensed. "For fuck sake, man, who's side are you on here?!"

"Look, Korbyn, calm the fuck down!" he said, placing a hand in front of me to stop me moving forward and smacking some bitches. "Right, we're going. It was great to meet you guys." And with that, he and Kelly both turned and started to walk back towards our house, waving at the frat, as Mac dragged me along beside him.

"Bye Stella!" the frat were calling, waving at her. "Bye Mac, bye Kelly."

"Bye, Psycho Bitch!" added Pete, and I turned around so sharply that I almost dislocated my arm in Mac's steel grip.

"Go and fuck yourself, Pete!" I screamed, pointing at him and, struggling against Mac, who just kept pulling me back to the house. "Sleep with one fucking eye open!"

"Korbyn!" Mac grunted, also struggling against _my_ strength. "Jesus Christ! Just get in the fucking house!" By this point, he had managed to get me to the foot of our porch steps.

"This is the worst fucking day of my life!" I yelled in his face, pushing past him and Kelly and into the house, storming up the stairs and into my bedroom. I slammed the door shut and pulled open the bottom drawer in my chest of drawers: my memory drawer. On the top of the photo albums and certificates and postcards was a picture I'd had for five years.

It was me and Pete at our high school graduation. We were in our gowns and graduation caps with our arms around each other. A couple of other friends were in the background, but Pete and I were grinning like we only had eyes for each other.

I scrunched the picture up in my fist and threw myself down on my bed, stuffing the covers into my mouth and screaming. And screaming. And screaming.

It felt like I was never going to stop.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Well, there you have it! I really hope you enjoyed chapter three, I'm still loving the feedback I'm getting! So please review, let me know what you thought! Love and kisses, and talk soon! Xx Gee xX**

**PS- Now, references. I feel I should make a point before I get any shade for this. I'm setting this fic when the movie came out, IE, April 2014 and onwards. As a result, I'll be making references that will appear kinda out of date. For example, one of Korbie's favourite things is WWE, so when I mention that The Shield in WWE are still together, it's because at the time this is set, they were. I'm not entirely stupid. Just things like that. I swear I'm doing it deliberately and not just being ignorant. :)**

**PPS- Speaking of, any WWE fans reading? On my profile, you'll find a trailer for a Roman Reigns/OC fic I'm going to be writing soon called **_**Speared Through The Heart**_**. I'd love it if you gave it a look-see and maybe a comment? Thanks guys, I love you all! **


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